French Provincial Cooking (74 page)

Now take 2 dozen small oysters, or 18 large ones, from their shells; with their juice put them in the smallest pan you have and simmer them gently for about half a minute. This operation is necessary to extract moisture which would otherwise come out of them when they are cooked with the sauce, making the sauce too runny. Now strain the juice through a muslin into the sauce; there won’t be very much, but enough to give a flavour. If necessary, simmer the sauce again for a minute or two.

The dish can be completed in two ways. One way is to put each oyster into its deep half-shell and cover with the sauce. But unless large oysters are being used, I find it better to put them into very small egg ramekins or fireproof china shells or even scallop shells, either six or a dozen in each. Cover them completely with the hot sauce. Pour a little melted butter on top. Put the little dishes or the shells on a baking tray and put them at the very top of a very hot, and preheated, oven for about 5 minutes, until the tops are golden and just bubbling.

All this sounds a formidable operation, but it is described in such detail in order that those who may be attempting a hot oyster dish for the first time may be spared disillusion.

Enough for two or three.

In Brittany and Touraine this dish is usually made with
palourdes,
the delicate little clams of the Atlantic coast. In England, Cornish oysters make an admirable alternative.

For 18 small oysters prepare the sauce as follows: chop 1 small shallot very finely with a teaspoon of parsley. Cook this in a little butter in a small frying-pan until the shallot is just beginning to turn yellow. Into the pan pour
pint of double cream. Let it boil for a minute, add a heaped dessertspoon of finely-grated Gruyère cheese, then a teaspoon of fine golden breadcrumbs. In a few seconds the cream will be quite thick. Season with freshly-milled pepper and a scrap of salt.

Rinse the oysters and their half shells rapidly in cold water; it is necessary to do this with the small Cornish oysters because their shells seem to chip so easily when they are opened, and little bits of shell and grit in the finished dish must be avoided. Put them back on the half shell and arrange them in a flat fireproof dish. Cover each completely with the sauce. Sprinkle very lightly with more breadcrumbs and put under a hot grill for 2 minutes. This is essentially a stove-to-table dish. It cannot be prepared in advance, it cannot be kept waiting, and if it is cooked too long the oysters underneath their sauce will be uneatably tough.

Enough for two or three.

Put the mussels into a large bowl of cold water as soon as they arrive in the kitchen. If they are not to be used until next day, cover the bowl with a cloth and sprinkle salt on top. Keep them in a cool place. When it comes to cleaning them, discard all broken ones, any that are gaping open and any in which the two shells can be slid against each other: these last will be full of mud or sand, and will make all the others gritty. With a knife remove the beard, or seaweed-like bits protruding from the shell, scrape off any barnacles or limpets adhering to the mussels, scrub the shells and wash them in several waters until, at the final washing, the water comes out quite free from grit. Keep them in cold water during the whole process. Allow approximately 1
pints of mussels per person.

To cook, put them in a large wide pan with a large glass of dry cider or white wine to every quart, cook fairly fast until the mussels open and remove them as soon as they do so to a warmed tureen or bowl. When all are ready, strain the remaining stock through a muslin, return to the pan, heat it up again, pour over the mussels and add chopped parsley. Serve as quickly as possible, providing plenty of bread, deep plates, forks to extract the mussels from their shells, soup spoons for the juice and a bowl for the empty shells. This is the most primitive version of
moules marinière
and is only really successful with the small and tender mussels which are none too easy to find in towns.

A grander version of
moules marinière.

Melt 1 oz. of butter in a wide pan, add a shallot, parsley and a few celery leaves all coarsely chopped, then a large glass of dry cider or dry white wine. Add 3 quarts of cleaned mussels, cover the pan for the first few minutes, then remove the lid and take out the mussels as they open and transfer them to a warmed dish or tureen. Strain the remaining stock through muslin, return it to the pan and let it reduce by about half. Put about
pint of double cream to boil in a small pan, so that it reduces and thickens, and meantime remove the empty half shells from the cooked mussels.

Add the boiling cream to the mussel stock, and off the fire stir in a good lump of butter. Pour bubbling hot over the mussels, add chopped parsley and serve quickly. For four people. One of the best wines to drink with mussels is a fresh clean Muscadet from the Loire.

When very large mussels are available, try them cooked by the excellent method used at la Mère Nénette’s restaurant in Montpellier where this dish is one of the specialities; the
brochettes
are quite a bit of trouble to prepare, so I give quantities for two people only. You will need a dozen large mussels per person, so buy at least 30, or about 3 pints, to allow for any which may be useless.

Clean and cook them as explained above. Remove from the shells, thread them on skewers, alternating each mussel with a little square of bacon. Sprinkle with flour, then roll the
brochettes
in beaten egg, then in very fine breadcrumbs. All these preparations can be done in advance.

When the time comes to cook them, heat a wide pan of oil to smoking point, plunge in the brochettes; about a minute will cook them.

Serve as quickly as possible. La Mère Nénette serves a few little
gaufrette
potatoes and a
béarnaise
sauce with the
brochettes.
The potatoes could, I think, be dispensed with, and alternatives to the
béarnaise
sauce are mayonnaise or even vinaigrette.

For a quart of small mussels, the other ingredients are a medium-sized onion, 2 large tomatoes, butter.

In a heavy frying-pan melt the butter; put in the roughly chopped onion and let it turn golden. Add the skinned and chopped tomatoes. Then put in the cleaned and scrubbed mussels, without any other liquid. Turn up the flame and cook until the mussels are open, shaking the pan from time to time so that the sauce gets evenly distributed among the mussels. Serve boiling hot immediately the mussels are open. Add freshly-milled pepper as you bring them to table.

Enough for two.

Put a couple of finely-chopped shallots in a saucepan with half a claret glass of water and 3 or 4 tablespoons of very good olive oil. Bring it very quickly to an absolutely galloping boil (this is the principle also applied to the cooking of a
bouillabaisse
—it is essential that the oil and water be rapidly amalgamated). Put in a quart of cleaned mussels and cook fast until they open. Sprinkle with roughly-chopped parsley and serve in very hot soup plates with all their juice. Enough for two.

‘Wash the mussels well several times, changing the water so as to cleanse them thoroughly; put them dry in a saucepan over a hot fire, till the shells open. Take off one valve of the shell only. Put into a saucepan half a glass of oil, parsley, chives, mushrooms, truffles, half a clove of garlic, all chopped very fine. Put it on the fire. Moisten it with a glass of white wine, a spoonful of broth and half the quantity of liquor from the mussels. Boil this sauce, and when it is nearly reduced to half, add the mussels, with a spoonful of gravy; let the whole boil a few minutes; then add a spoonful of lemon juice, pepper and grated nutmeg, then serve.’

Dictionnaire Général de la Cuisine Française Ancienne et Moderne,
1866 edition

1
teacups of long-grained Patna rice, 2
teacups of light chicken, veal or fish stock and
teacup of olive oil, half a raw red or green sweet pepper, 3 to 4 oz. of
chorizo
sausage (or other coarsely-cut pork sausage of the type to be bought in delicatessens), 2 pints of mussels, a few prawns, paprika pepper.